Family rejects N2.5m severance pay for Kaduna ex-deputy governor

The family of the late Deputy Governor Stephen Shekari has rejected the N2.5 million severance pay from the government, eight years after his death, The Nation learnt yesterday.

Shekari, who served under former Governor Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi between 1999 and 2005, died at an Israeli hospital on July 10, 2005, of an undisclosed ailment.

In a letter to the family, dated January 22, 2007 and signed by Nurudeen Ibrahim on behalf of the Commissioner for Economic Planning, the government said it paid the late Shekari N2.5 million.

The money was said to be the late Shekari’s total severance gratuity. It was paid through a Unity Bank cheque, which the family rejected and returned to the government.

In a letter to Governor Mukthar Ramalan Yero by Mrs. Charity Shekari, Mrs. Saratu Shekari and Yakubu Shekari, the three administrators to Shekari’s estate, the family urged the government to revisit the benefit/entitlement of their father and ensure that it is paid.

The letter, dated March 14, 2013, was received the following day at the Governor’s Office.

It reads: “The government, on February 26, 2007, paid us N2.5 million as benefits/entitlement of our late husband and father.

“We returned the cheque because we did not agree that N2.5 million could be the benefits/entitlement of a deputy governor, who had served the state for six and a half years and died in active service… and to inform Your Excellency that we have not received any form of benefits/entitlement since the death of our husband and father.”

“There is need to make us feel a part of your government, especially as our breadwinner, who served this state and country faithfully, has neither been rewarded nor his benefits/entitlements paid to his family.

“We hesitate to say, even the oldest utility vehicle was taken away from us; we were not given the opportunity to repurchase any private security car, as is the tradition with government. We know Your Excellency will honour Stephen Shekari by looking into this issue positively.